Many vehicle route planning systems are known in which a vehicle operator specifies a desired destination and directly inputs this data into an in-vehicle route planning computer or microprocessor. The computer then calculates a desired route to the specified destination via fixed road paths wherein these road paths are defined by detailed map data provided to the computer by some suitable means such as a compact disk (CD) reader. Such route planning systems are used in vehicle navigation systems in which detailed driving instructions are provided to the vehicle operator so as to guide him along the desired route to his destination by means of audible instructions and/or visual information displays.
Route planning and navigation systems such as those discussed above are very well known, and detailed route planning software is provided in the in-vehicle route planning computer used in the system. Also, detailed road map data is provided to the in-vehicle route planning computer. In such systems, the vehicle operator plans a trip by entering appropriate trip data, including desired destination data, after he enters the vehicle and turns on the route planning system. However, many times a vehicle operator would prefer to plan a trip prior to his entering into the vehicle. It would be much more convenient for the vehicle operator if he could plan his trip while he was in his home, office or hotel room. In that way, the vehicle operator would typically have additional information available to him concerning the trip and the trip planning would not necessarily have to take place in the confined area of a vehicle. It is possible to duplicate all of the in-vehicle route planning software and hardware and provide it in a remote location such that all of the trip and route planning might take place either via the in-vehicle computer or a duplicate remote route planning computer. However, obviously this is not an efficient way to implement route planning since it would require essentially duplicating the entire in-vehicle route planning system at a remote location, and this would double the cost of the route planning system. Providing a route planning computer remote from the vehicle is possible, but clearly many times the vehicle operator needs to calculate routes after he is in the vehicle and therefore he requires in-vehicle route calculation capability. The present invention implements an improved way of planning a trip and then utilizing an in-vehicle route planning system to calculate a desired route to a specified destination.